We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass

While history classes derided (and still deride) the leaders of business as robber barons, despoilers and exploiters, the prestige writers in literature courses treated corporate culture with either poisonous condescension or outright hostility.

POP CULTURE POKES AT PLUTOCRATS

Surprisingly, American popular culture for more than a generation has echoed similar themes, despite the fact that most of those diversions emerge from the famous Hollywood “dream factory” characterized as show business. In fact , one of the nastiest and most influential of all indictments of corporate corruption and the financial system (“Wall Street,” 1987) came from one of the largest entertainment conglomerates of them all (20th Century Fox). Writer-director Oliver Stone contributed a fictional line (“Greed is good”) endlessly cited to prove the guilt and excess of the 1980’s (or any other era that offends political correctness with its emphasis on profit and growth). Even sophisticated journalists who ought to know better love to quote “greed is good” as some sort of authentic and shameful capitalist credo, just as they sometimes assume that the reptilian and predatory character who pronounced the famous words, Gordon Gekko, enjoyed some independent existence beyond his lurid, amoral life on screen. For instance on October 8, 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin reacted to the spreading financial crisis with a major address entitled: "The Children of Gordon Gekko." Rudd declared, “It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed-is-good ideology. And today we are still cleaning up the mess of the 21st-century children of Gordon Gekko.”

In fact, Oliver Stone’s celebrated dialogue was only loosely inspired by a 1986 speech by the soon-to-be disgraced financier Ivan Boesky, where he told an audience at the University of California, Berkeley, "I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself". His words certainly lacked the force of Gordon Gekko’s invented exhortation (especially as delivered by Michael Douglas in his Oscar-winning performance): “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms - greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge - has marked the upward surge of mankind, and greed - you mark my words - will not only save Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.”

The eloquent Mr. Gekko hardly stands alone in winning Oscar attention for films that highlight the most irresponsible, rapacious and loathsome aspects of the business world. Among recent Academy Award nominees for Best Picture, anti-corporate essays improbably abound, including “Norma Rae” (1979), “Atlantic City” and “Reds” (1981), “Missing” and “The Verdict” (1982), “Broadcst News” (1987), “Working Girl” (1988), “Bugsy” and “JFK” (1991), “Pulp Fiction” and “Quiz Show” (1994), “Jerry Maguire” and “Secrets and Lies” (1996), “L.A. Confidential” (1997), “American Beauty,” “Cider House Rules” and “The Insider” (1999), “Chocolat,” “Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic” (2000), “Crash” (2005), “The Departed” and “Babel” (2006), and then, in time to herald the upcoming market meltdown, the tri-fecta of 2007 --- “No Country for Old Men,” “Michael Clayton” and “There Will be Blood.”

At the same time, TV series with unmistakable business-bashing themes dominated the Emmy Awards for 2008 for both Best Comedy (“30 Rock,” “The Office,” “Entourage”) and Best Drama (“Damages,” “Mad Men,” “Boston Legal”). Meanwhile, the critically acclaimed ABC TV series “Dirty Sexy Money” (2007-2009) made clear its cynical attitude toward the pursuit of profit in its very title and the even more acclaimed Fox series “Arrested Development” (2003-2006) similarly centered on the intersection of corporate criminality and family dysfunction.

The avalanche of negative portrayals of business ethics and accomplishment has arrived unaccompanied by any contrasting or countervailing visions of heroism or dynamism in the corporate world –a surprising imbalance considering that the source of all these entertainments remains one of the most ruthlessly competitive and globally consequential of all US enterprises.

Why would Hollywood, dominated by a handful of shamelessly capitalistic conglomerates, regularly trash the free market system which allowed American media companies to dominate the globe?

The answer to that puzzlement – provided in the continuation of this essay that will appear next week – does more to explain the harsh current view of business than any consideration of the impact of the current crisis.

TO BE CONTINUED